Kinesthetic intro to Pascal’s Triangle

I’m trying to figure out how to kinesthetically demonstrate Pascal’s triangle with my precalculus kids

My response:

I do a lot of kinesthetic activities in geometry and algebra, but haven’t yet thought about this particular topic that way.

Here’s a possibility:– Have students stand in a triangular number arrangement– Give the top student a penny.– Give the top student another penny, and have him/her give the pennies, one each, to students in the next row– Explain that this is what everyone will have to do: “when the time comes, give half of your pennies to each of the two students in the next row.”– Now give the top student two pennies, which get passed down to the next row, and from there to the next row, which gets us to 1 2 1– Ask that row how many pennies they have altogether. Give that many pennies to the top student. Those should trickle down to 1 3 3 1.– Ask that row how many they have, and give that many pennies to the top student.– etc.

You get the powers of two pattern for free.

(Disclaimer: I have not yet actually done this with students. If someone tries it, let me know how it turns out!)